Anxiety<\/a> We are all human. We all get frustrated. Recognizing these frustrations and using strategies creates an opportunity for you to model positive coping skills for your child. Believe it or not, they are looking at us and watching our reactions all the time! Take a moment to reflect: \u00e2\u2014\u008f How do you cope with your child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustrated feelings and reactions? \u00e2\u2014\u008f Do you tend to catastrophize or\/and over empathize with your child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s problem? \u00e2\u2014\u008f Are you able to control your own reactions? Remember, children are incredibly perceptive. If you have difficulty holding their frustrated feelings, they will too! Help your child manage their frustrations by talking about what it looks like and feels like for them. Share what you notice when they are frustrated . . . does their reaction come in the form of a shut-down, outburst, avoidance? Help them put a name to their feelings and then explore the strategies that can help them feel more calm and grounded in the moment.<\/p>\nCoping Strategies<\/h2>\n
So what are some coping strategies to model? Here are a few simple, developmentally appropriate tools that you can use to support your child (and yourself) to handle day-to-day challenges. \u00e2\u2014\u008f Take a deep breath (soup breath & belly breath are popular with my kiddos) \u00e2\u2014\u008f Walk away \u00e2\u2014\u008f Run a lap \u00e2\u2014\u008f Name it to Tame it! – Dr. Daniel Siegel \u00e2\u2014\u008f Drink water or eat a snack \u00e2\u2014\u008f Approach situations with a growth mindset (Changing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do this!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do this, yet\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) \u00e2\u2014\u008f Support your child to consider the worst-case scenario AND how likely (or unlikely) that is to happen.<\/p>\n
Practice, Practice, Practice<\/h2>\n
To help your child use these strategies when they need them most, they will need to practice them (during non-stressful times). You wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run a race without training first. Similarly, to help your child access calming strategies when they need them most, they will need to strengthen their emotional muscle memory! Remember, frustration is not the enemy or something to eradicate. It is part of what makes us human. When frustration rears its head for your child (or you ;)) just remember to notice, name and soothe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Frustration. A feeling we often view as something to flee from! While frustration can be an uncomfortable feeling, it is also an important one. It can motivate us . . . to work harder, practice longer, and go after our goals. The downside? It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel good. Extreme cases of frustration can even make us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3201,"featured_media":42669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1921,628,1841],"tags":[1995,2194,51],"class_list":["post-42633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-child-concerns","category-general","category-parenting","tag-coping-strategies","tag-frustration","tag-healthy-parenting"],"acf":{"author_show":false,"author_name":"","author_role":"","author_avatar":null,"author_profile_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Frustration. A feeling we often view as something to flee from! While frustration can be an uncomfortable feeling, it is also an important one. It can motivate us . . . to work harder, practice longer, and go after our goals. The downside? It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel good. Extreme cases of frustration can even make us feel the need to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153give-up\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153shut down\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. What picture comes to mind when you think of frustration? A cartoon with smoke coming out of its ears? A sad emoji face? Did you know that there are actually MANY faces of frustration?! Take a moment and think about what you may look like when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re feeling frustrated. How about your spouse or child . . . do you all have the same \u00e2\u20ac\u0153look\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, or is it different?<\/p>\n